The European Commission will on Wednesday consider how to craft a plan to ease the bloc out of a virus lockdown that has dealt a body blow to the economies of EU members.

Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will hold an "orientation debate" with commissioners by videoconference, after some EU countries announced they were already planning to relax measures.

Lebanon’s SGBL bank on Tuesday announced a second initiative addressed at small depositors, in line with the central bank’s latest circular on exchange rates and withdrawal limits.

“Our bank would like to assure that, as of the morning of Wednesday, April 8, 2020, it will begin implementing (the central bank’s circular) through an easy electronic process, to the benefit of all small depositors who have accounts containing up to LBP 5 million or $3,000,” it said in a statement.

Equities rallied again Tuesday as investors seized on signs of a slowdown in the spread of the coronavirus in key hotspots and some governments began making plans to ease restrictions aimed at containing the disease.

Oil prices rebounded Tuesday on fresh hopes an OPEC-led meeting this week will reach an agreement to reduce oversupply and shore up the market.

Oil prices fell sharply Monday after a meeting to discuss output cuts between OPEC and its allies was delayed, dimming hopes of swift action to support coronavirus-ravaged energy markets.

Boeing has said it will indefinitely extend a shutdown at its factories in Washington state because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez urged the EU Sunday to issue "coronabonds," controversial pooled debt instruments to help the bloc's hardest hit countries fund their battle against the devastating economic impact of the pandemic.

The coronavirus pandemic is increasing poverty in Britain, where levels are already high after a decade of austerity triggered by the global financial crisis, according to experts.

Latin America is heading into "a deep recession" in 2020, with an expected drop in the region's GDP of 1.8 to 4.0 percent due to the coronavirus pandemic, the UN economic commission for the region said Friday.

The coronavirus pandemic threatens to cause food shortages for hundreds of millions of people, especially in Africa, the United Nations warned Friday.